LINQ and Entity Framework Posts for 9/29/2008+

Note: This post is updated daily or more frequently, depending on the availability of new articles.

Entity Framework and Entity Data Model (EF/EDM)

Ido Flatow describes the reason you can’t use WCF’s JSON DataContractJasonSerializer with EF in his Serializing Entity Framework object to JSON post of 9/20/2008. The problem is that EF objects set IsReference = true on associated entities. AJAX’s JavaScriptSerializer can’t handle circular references.

(Note that the DataContractSerializer can’t handle serializing LINQ to SQL entities with circular references unless you apply Damien Guard’s T4 template, as described in my Bidirectional Serialization of LINQ to SQL Object Graphs with Damien Guard’s T4 Template in VS 2008 SP1 post of 9/25/2008.)

Ido concludes that ADO.NET Data Services (Astoria) is the only practical method for serializing EF objects as JSON, but requires users to adopt Web services instead of simple serialization.

Julie Lerman describes issues with the need to obtain an EntityKey for 1:1 or 1:0..1 relationships in her A bookmark: EF queries for Parents who have 1:0..1 relationships to their children post of 9/30/2008.

David McCarter’s What I Have Learned So Far About The Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services post of 9/20/2008 reports on real-world use of EF in a VB 6.0 to C# conversion project. He offers tips for EF projects in their own assembly, adding the “root” table to the designer first when creating your EDM, using Astoria, joining EntitySets in EF, and updating data.

Muhammad Mosa continues his EF series with Inheritance and Associations with Entity Framework Part 2 of 9/28/2008, which covers Table-per-Type (TPT) inheritance with sample code and and a video (screencast) tutorial. His previous Inheritance and Associations with Entity Framework Part 1 post of 9/24/2008 deals with the Table-per-Hiearchy (TPH) model.

LINQ to SQL

Mike Tulty is Surprised by WPF DataGrid :-) and its ability to update LINQ to SQL entities with no added effort in his 9/30/2008 post.

LINQ to Objects, LINQ to XML, et al.

Eric White recommends loading text files into memory instead of lazy loading with LINQ to XML in his LINQ to TEXT and LINQ to CSV post of 9/30/2008.

Eric White takes on transforming Open XML documents to and from flat format in the following three posts of 9/29/2008:

• Transforming Open XML Documents using XSLT
• Transforming Open XML Documents to Flat OPC Format
• Transforming Flat OPC Format to Open XML Documents

ADO.NET Data Services (Astoria)

Bangalore .NET User Group has posted slides and source code of the Virtual Tech*Ed Session of 9/18/2008 in their VTD Session - Building RESTful Services using .NET 3.5 SP1 post of 9/28/2008.

See also Ida Faltow’s and David McCarter’s posts in the EF section.

ASP.NET Dynamic Data (DD)

Bill Burrows’ ASP.NET Dynamic Data Tutorial provides demo code for the tutorial and a DD Wizard-based Web site plus 11 videos. Here’s Bill’s description:

This tutorial covers the creation of a Dynamic Data site using Visual Web Developer Express 3.5 (SP1). It then talks about the conceptual ideas underlying the technology. Dynamic Data sites are highly customizable so the tutorial covers several ways to perform customization. Finally, the tutorial introduces the Dynamic Data Wizard, a project under development, that make customization easy via a "wizard" approach.

Steven Naughton continues customizing DD with his Dynamic Data Custom Pages - A variation of Part 6 with the Details and SubGrid in Tabs post of 9/29/2008.

SQL Server Data Services (SSDS)

Richard Stallman derides cloud computing in a Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman interview in The Guardian dated 9/29/2008.

Stan Schroeder claims Stallman “is going berserk” in his If Web Apps are Evil, Why Do We Use Them? post of 9/29/2008 on Mashable.com. I agree that Stallman doesn’t have a grip on the definition of “cloud computing.” He’s actually aggrieved about Web applications.

SQL Server Compact (SSCE) 3.5 and Sync Services

No entries as of 10/2/2008 7:30 AM PDT.

Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 and Later (General)

Video Studio Team announces the next VS version in their Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Overview MSDN article of 8/29/2008.

Norman Guadagno, “the Director of Product Management for Visual Studio Team System shares the key enhancements coming in the next version of Visual Studio, officially named Visual Studio 2010” in this Channel 9 video of 9/29/2008: Norman Guadagno: Announcing Visual Studio Team System 2010.

Miscellaneous (WPF, WCF, MVC, Silverlight, etc.)

Rob Connery donates a standard MVC template to VS 2008 SP1 users in his My MVC Starter Template post of 9/29/2008.

Rich Strahl presents a comprehensive Introduction to jQuery (Part 1: The Client Side) tutorial in honor of Scott Guthrie’s announcement that future versions of Visual Studio will incorporate jQuery and that Microsoft will support jQuery in VS 2008. His 9/29/2008 article covers:

• Key Features of jQuery
• Getting Started with Selectors
• The Wrapped Set of DOM Matches
• jQuery Wrapped Set Operations
• Event Handling
• Creating and Embedding HTML
• Effects
• What's not to like?
• Resources

Mike Hadlow handles Column Ordering, Paging and Filtering in the MVC Framework in his 9/29/2008 post with a “simple framework” that’s available for download.

Technorati tags: Entity Framework, Entity Data Model, EDM, LINQ to SQL, LINQ to Objects, LINQ to XML, LINQ, ADO.NET Data Services, Astoria Project, ASP.NET Dynamic Data, Cloud Computing, WCF, MVC, jQuery, VS 2010, Visual Studio 2010